Air-valve.



l'11 W. LEUTHESSBR.

AIB VALVE.

APPLIUTION ILEII APB.. 4, 1911. 1,008,279. Patented Nov. 7, 1911 UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEicE.

FRED W. LEUTHESSER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

' AIR-VALVE.

specincation of Letters Patent.

Application med April 4, 1911. serial No. 618,833.

Patented Nov. 7, 1911.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, FRED LEUTHEssER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and u se-4 ful Improvements in Air-Valves, of which sible member which is of a nature to beY readily adjustable, andwhich will be rovided with a sight opening that will enable the worlnnan assembling the air valve mechanism to determine when this seating mem-4 ber has been brought into proper correlation with the expansible member.

' Further objects of the invention are, to so form the seating member as to provide a passage which, in addition to providing a sight opening for the purpose heretofore stated, provides a passage through which steam can pass, whereby the proper adjustf ment of the seating member can be determined either by looking through the sight opening and seeing where the seating face of the seatin member is lying with respect to the end cfg the eXpansible member, or by noting the presence of escaping steam through said opening; and a further object of the invent-ion is to provide a seating'member which is cheap and simple of construction, and which will have eliminated therefrom all compressible members or sliding members and will consist solely of"a ringlike member adjustable in the valve casing.

The invention further relates to the fea? tures of construction and the combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a sectional view of an air valve, showing one form of the seating member of the present invention in operative position; Fig. 2, a view similar to Fig. l, showing a modified form of seating member; Fig. 3,'-a view similar to Fig. l, showing still another modified form of seating member; and Figs. 4 and 5, sectional details showing modified forms of mounting for the expansible member.

The air valve of the present invention is of the general type employed with steam radiators for the purpose of permitting thel air to escape out from the radiator when it is forced out by the entrance of steam thereinto, and to automatically check communication between the interior of the radiator and the outside air after the air shall have been driven from the radiator. This checking is to'prevent the outflow or escapement of steam from the radiator for a long period lof time, which is obviously detrimental, as

it results in a decrease in the amount of heat givenol by the radiator.

In air valves of the type in which 4the 1 seating member of the present invention is employed, it has been the common expedi- .ent to equip said air valves with an expansible member which will be susceptible to thermal changes, and to provide a seating membefor said expansible member which coperaties with this eXpansible member to establish and cut ol communication between the interior of the radiator and the outside type of air valve to have the seat-ing mem- .ber so adjusted with respect to the expansible member' asto enable an engagement to be made between these twomembers after the expansible member has beendistended a predetermined amount. If the seating member is not in close enough proximity to the end of the expansible member, there will 'be maintained a clearance between the two Which will not be closed by the distension of the expansible member, which is produced by subjecting it `to a certainamount of heat; and hence, there will be .a constant leakair. It is of the utmost importance in this age of steamfrom the radiator throughthe escapement valvei" This continued leakage will result in a material decreasein the heat-4 ing .eiciency of the radiator, and where there Vare several radiators -i-n Ya .System all Vleaking steam i/n this manner, it wouldi'be impossible to maintain a steam pressure sufficient to produce the proper amount of heat. Because of the nature of the material of which these expansible members are made,

vil? a too close engagement is made 'between' the seating member and the end of the eX- pansible member, it vwill result, `when the expansible"member-distends, in a crushing and breaking of the expansible member, and this would, of course,`destroy theeiciency of the device, and even ifA it "did not result in an absolute breaking' ofthe expansible member, it would result in a warping .or bulging, which would be just as undesirable lso yfar as the further operation of the device is concerned. So it will be seen that extreme caution` must be used in the adjustment of this seating member, and that if a proper adjustment is not had, the efficiency of the entire device is destroyed.

It has been the practice in the art to which the present invention relates to use various forms of tension controlled members with these seating members, or to provide a series of movable members which are .so arranged that when the proper engagement is made between the expansible member and its seating member, steam issuing 'from the o pening in the seating member will give an 1nd1 cation of such a condition, or the indication will be given by being forced into such a position that no further movement of them by a tool can be accomplished. In this latter construction, however, the operator could not see the position of the parts and so was unable to make the adjustment before the valve left the factory. In bothof these cases, the adjustment is determined solely by the movement of certain parts of the seating member for the expansible member. In the present invention these movable parts have been entirely eliminated, and the adjustment can be determined before the valve leaves the factory, which has been impossible in prior constructions, so far as I am aware, because of the fact thatit was necessary, in order to get an accurate adjustment, to note the presence of steam issuing from the opening in the seating member, and hence it was necessary to apply the valve to a radiator or some other source of steamsupply in order to accurately determine the adjustment. The device of the present invention is shown as applied to a valve 6, which con-' sists of a casing 7 provided with a nipple 8, adapted to be attached to the radiator, and with a base member 9, to which is entered the end'of the exhaust pipe 10; and the casing has secured to its upper end a cap 11,

member 12. l

All of the above described pats are old and well known in the valve art and may be of any desired configuration. They are not claimed as part of the present invention and are lnerely shown for the purpose of illustrating one type of valve to which the seating member of the present invention may be applied.

The seating member of the present invention is located at the upper end of the valve casing and is in the form of a ring-like member 13, which is provided with an ex! terior screw-threaded surface 14 adapted to engage with an interior screw-threaded surface 15 on the neck 16 of the valve casing. The ring-like member 13 is provided with a relatively large opening 17. The member may, if desiredIl be prmded with a suitable notch 18, into which a screw-driver or other 'instrument is inserted in assembling the seating member in position. The walls 19 of the opening 17, as shown in Flg. 1, are formed on a curve, which provides a sloping seating face 20 at the lower end thereof, which is adapted to seat upon a `tapered face 21 upon the upper vend of the expansible member. `When the face 2O and the face 21 are brought into engagement with one another, a seal is produced, which stops thel passage of air out from the valve casing, as well as the escape of steam. It is the maintenance of this engagement between these two faces which requires the fine adjustment `of the seating member heretofore referred to.

In the present invention, before the air valve leaves the factory,the workman can, by lookin into the hole 17, see when the face 2O o the seating member is in pro er relation to the face 21 of the expansi 1le member.` That is, he can see when these two faces contactaand then by giving the seating member a short turn, he can space 1t away from the eXpansible member a desired distance, so that when the valve is placed upon the radiator, it will operate in an etti cient and desirable manner. It will be readily seen that this is of material advantage,

since it enables these valves to be adjusted before they leave the factory, and in a quick and efficient manner. Undoubtedly, the manufacturer of valves is better equipped than the user to perform this adjustment so y that it will be more efficient in operation, and if this adjustment can be made without the time of subjecting every valve to a steam test, it unquestionably results in a savingof time, and hence a reduction of cost in the construction of the valve.

Of course, the stopping of thel flow of steam through the opening 17 will accurately indicate the seating of the face 20 against the face 21, and in this respect the device of the present invention will follow the prior art. But in addition to this, the present invention allows of an observance of the relation of the seating member to the end of the expansible member, so that the adjustment can be made without the steam test, and also eliminates all of the springeontrolled or other movable devices which 'had formerly been used in conjunction with these escapement valves.

The valve of the present invention is of the simplest form an is extremely cheap of foo construction, and does not possess a multiplicity of parts which are liable to become disarranged; but possesses every advantage that is vfound in the structures in the prior art, and `possesses the additional advantage of allowing an adjustment to be made before the valvr leaves the factory by. an ob servation of the relation of the seating membm' to the end of the expansible member,

of the prior art with which I am acquainted.'

In Fig. 2 a seating member is shown,

which is provided with inner sloping faces 22, and which, as shown, are of a straight formation, in place of the curved formation disclosed in Fig. 1.

In Fig. 3 is shown a form of seating member which isprovided with a straight inner face 23, which terminates in a shoulder 24, leading from which is a bevel face 25. In this construction a somewhat larger opening is provided.

In Fig. 4 is shown a modified form of holder 26, for supporting the expansible member; and in Fig. 5 is shown another modified holder 27.

All of these modifications work upon the same principle attributed to the form heretofore described, and the structure shown in Figs. 4 and 5 are merely for the purpose of showing the different forms of expansible member with which this device may be used.

The operation of the device is as follows: When the valve is attached to the radiator, a slight clearance is left between the faces 2O and 21. l/Vhen steam is admitted to the radiator, it will force the air into the valve casing and out through the passage between the faces 20 and 21. After the airhas been exhausted and the steam enters, the entrance of the steam into the valve casing will cause the expansible member to distend until the face 21 is brought into engagement with the face 2O and communication between the interior of the valve casing and the outside air cut ofl", thus preventin leakage of steam out from the radiator. I leakage of steam is present, the seating member can be lowered until such leakage-is stopped, which is an indication that the faces 20 and 21 are in engagement. Before the steam is turned on, however, the user may, by looking through the hole 17, observe when the seating member is in position, so that it is spaced a trifle away from the end of the expansible member, and this will enable him .to determine when the seating member 1s in correct posit-ion, so that the face 21 will engage with the face 2O after the expansible member has distended the proper distance and automatically cut off the leakage of steam.

I claim:

1. An air valve for radiators, comprising a shell and an expansible member within the shell having an end seating face, and an adjustable ring entered into the upper end of the shell, whereby said ring may be adjustable without removal of the valve from position, the interior faceof said ring being configured to provide a seating face for the upper end of the expansible member, the

opening in said ring being of a size to fur' nish a sight opening to enable the co-relation between the seating face of the ring and the end of the expansible member to be viewed, substantially as. described.

2. An air valve for radiators comprising a shell and an expansible member within the shell, said member having a tapered end, and an adjustable ring entered into the upper end of the shell, said ring having its inner face tapered to conform to the taper of the upper end of the expansible member, and providing a'seat for said member, the ring opening furnishing a sight for positioning said ring in proper co-relation to the end of said expansible member, substantially as described. -1

- WM. P. Bom),

FRANCES M. FROST.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

